what do you know about foreign countries? stereotypes vs. reality

GreenTeaDisease

brainofme wrote:

and that's what stereotypes are. i come from austria, does that make me a fucking nazi? no, no, no!!!!

but YOU stereotyped americans!!!

GreenTeaDisease

gabers wrote:

Let's face it, there are a lot of ignorant Americans. When it comes to world geography, I'd bet Americans would probably be the most ignorant, as a nation. I have little nieces in Peru that know more about the world than many college grads here. Seriously. Of course that's not to say all Americans are stupid. I take offense to that also. I think we just tend to take less interest in other cultures, for a variety of reasons, including arrogance. I'm sure you and your friends are very intelligent, but you know the deal.

there are a lot of ignorant other people too! and I don't know, I'm pretty sure that maybe some people in the tanzania or malawi who don't have access books might be a little worse off on geography than americans.

Sure there are a lot of ignorant americans, as there are ignorant people from plenty of other places, but we have 2 huge coast lines and plenty of big cities where the people love to travel, love foreign languages, and are very interested in culture. I'm not very good at learning languages, but it was CONVENTION for me to learn two, here in america.

brainofme

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

but YOU stereotyped americans!!!

well have you actually read the whole post?

it's good for you that you are an educated, intelligent american, and it's good for me that i am an austrian who is not a nazi.


so what exactly makes you so mad about my post. the australia-austria thing or what? and once again: that came from an american himself.

cropdustress

If you walk on the streets of Vienna or Salzburg, you can see all sorts of t-shirts and accessories on this subject: Austria and Australia.
I didn't really think it came from Americans, I just thought it was a general mispell or something and that's how people in general got mistaken Australia and Austria...
But it's funny to see all those shirts and signs: Welcome to Austria, No Kangaroos Here and all types of Aussie-like thingies, haha.

Sonja_S

brainofme wrote:

it's interesting, cause you can understand different languages, while i have problems understanding people from vorarlberg or tyrol - even though they come from my country. haha..

Now I know why Austrian movies get subtitles in German theatres when even Austrians have troubles

There was a story in Kurier (2nd largest daily paper in Austria) last weekend about priests from Africa and Asia coming to work in Austria and one of them said in the beginning he was totally confused why people in Floridsdorf (Vienna's 21st district) spoke a different language than those in his parish in Meidling (12th district).

We really do have a lot of dialects that sometimes border on entirely different languages. My grandmother didn't speak German at all, she spoke the old Viennese which is a dead language by now. Not counting my parents and sister, I only know one person who still can speak/understand that one.

Also when at meetings in Germany, we found that when we were talking in our natural dialects, the German collegues didn't have any idea what we were talking about. They didn't understand the Swiss guys either. That came in very handy if we had to form alliances sometimes

For the Kommissar Rex fans: if you understand German and like theatre, Alexander Pschill plays quite a lot in the Theater in der Josefstadt and the Kammerspiele. He was great in 'Elling' last year.

As for the languages spoken in the countries around us, I don't get why they are still not properly taught in Austrian schools (I had 9 years of French and 5 English). We started a petition to get teachers for Hungarian and Czech when I was still in school, but they couldn't get the funds. My parents moved close to the Czech border and everytime I cross it to go shopping (or at trips to Prague) I'm embarrassed that I don't speak more than maybe 10 words Czech :(

GreenTea: I have to defend Julia here. She didn't mention the difference between Austria and Australia out of ignorance. You have no idea how many times US companies shipped stuff for me to Australia even though I clearly wrote Austria on the order or people on message boards asking me about the state of Aboriginal affairs...

Sonja_S

cropdustress wrote:

If you walk on the streets of Vienna or Salzburg, you can see all sorts of t-shirts and accessories on this subject: Austria and Australia.
I didn't really think it came from Americans, I just thought it was a general mispell or something and that's how people in general got mistaken Australia and Austria...
But it's funny to see all those shirts and signs: Welcome to Austria, No Kangaroos Here and all types of Aussie-like thingies, haha.

Those are getting old now though. I like the ones that look like Puma shirts but the puma is replaced by a jumping cow

cropdustress

Sonja_S wrote:

Those are getting old now though. I like the ones that look like Puma shirts but the puma is replaced by a jumping cow

Haha, I think I saw those too. Nice, great ideas, pretty funny.

bedface cooper.

cropdustress wrote:

Yes, the show is Austrian and filmed in Vienna mostly.
Austrians have a different accent than Germans, I guess if you don't know the language, you can't really figure it out, but there is an accent...Accents actually, but I'm not THAT good distingusing different types of accents according to regions, haha.

brainofme wrote:

it's interesting, cause you can understand different languages, while i have problems understanding people from vorarlberg or tyrol - even though they come from my country. haha..

I so had to think of something similar to the second quote when reading the first one, and I'm laughing so hard at the moment
We up in the mountains are not THAT bad

eMMI

brainofme wrote:

yeah, Mozart is from Austria, actually from Salzburg (pj played there in 2000). he's one of our famous classical composers. so if you come to austria you can find Mozart-Kugeln (chocolate balls with marzipan) and other Mozart-souvenirs everywhere (as well as "Sissy"-souvenirs - the former empress of austria)

woo!

yeah, I got two of those Mozart-Kugelns as a part of my Secret Santa pressie. yummy.

I've heard of Sissy too actually. I think I've seen a film/documentary or something about her. pretty interesting, not that I can remember much about it.




btw. when you people have got time, feel free to display your stereotypes/knowledge about Finland.

brainofme

Sonja_S wrote:

GreenTea: I have to defend Julia here. She didn't mention the difference between Austria and Australia out of ignorance. You have no idea how many times US companies shipped stuff for me to Australia even though I clearly wrote Austria on the order or people on message boards asking me about the state of Aboriginal affairs...

thanks sonja, that was was i was talking about.
you see, this happens for real, it's not something i made up in my ignorant little mind...

i think this topic is finished now. if anybody felt insulted by what i wrote, i'm sorry, but i would never say all people from.....(insert country name here) are like this or like that. if i would believe in stereotypes than i wouldn't have started the thread. i'm interested in different cultures.

bedface cooper. wrote:

I so had to think of something similar to the second quote when reading the first one, and I'm laughing so hard at the moment
We up in the mountains are not THAT bad

nobody said you're bad, just difficult to understand :-)

eMMI wrote:

btw. when you people have got time, feel free to display your stereotypes/knowledge about Finland.

well, you have a lot of lakes, a pretty country and some well-known formula 1 racers (mika häkkinen, kimi raikkonen - spelling?), and your always one of the top countries at the "pisa-test".

Rygar

brainofme wrote:

thanks sonja, that was was i was talking about.
you see, this happens for real, it's not something i made up in my ignorant little mind...

i think this topic is finished now. if anybody felt insulted by what i wrote, i'm sorry, but i would never say all people from.....(insert country name here) are like this or like that. if i would believe in stereotypes than i wouldn't have started the thread. i'm interested in different cultures.




nobody said you're bad, just difficult to understand :-)





well, you have a lot of lakes, a pretty country and some well-known formula 1 racers (mika häkkinen, kimi raikkonen - spelling?), and your always one of the top countries at the "pisa-test".

And Saku Koivu, and Teemu Selanne, and Jari Kurri....

brainofme

Rygar wrote:

And Saku Koivu, and Teemu Selanne, and Jari Kurri....

never heard about them.

Rygar

brainofme wrote:

never heard about them.

Sigh....

Saku!
Teemu!
Jari!
Iceman!

meme

Sonja_S wrote:

GreenTea: I have to defend Julia here. She didn't mention the difference between Austria and Australia out of ignorance. You have no idea how many times US companies shipped stuff for me to Australia even though I clearly wrote Austria on the order or people on message boards asking me about the state of Aboriginal affairs...

It doesn't help that you have Neil and Tim Finn in your signature

brainofme

meme wrote:

It doesn't help that you have Neil and Tim Finn in your signature

LOL

GreenTeaDisease

have you guys seen the Flight of the Conchords episode, where this middle eastern guy won't sell Brett fruit because he doesn't serve "his kind." and then this whole race war ensues and the guy is leaving notes on his door that say "Kiwi go home!" And then finally they confront the guy and he explains that he has no tolerance for "convicts that were bred from monkeys" or something like that and Brett goes "no, that's australians, we're from new zealand" and the guy is like "oh my god, I didn't realize I'm so sorry" and then they band together and start a race war on the australians. it's hilarious.

Sonja_S

meme wrote:

It doesn't help that you have Neil and Tim Finn in your signature

You want the Kiwis to come after you for saying the Finn brothers are Australian now?

As for Finland, I think one of the biggest stereotype would be the liberal consumption of Vodka I only heard good things about Helsinki from friends who have been there, must be a beautiful town.

And you guys won the Eurovision song contest (2006?) with a performance that I found hilarious and long overdue in that stuffed up competition.

GreenTeaDisease

Sonja_S wrote:

You want the Kiwis to come after you for saying the Finn brothers are Australian now?

As for Finland, I think one of the biggest stereotype would be the liberal consumption of Vodka I only heard good things about Helsinki from friends who have been there, must be a beautiful town.

And you guys won the Eurovision song contest (2006?) with a performance that I found hilarious and long overdue in that stuffed up competition.

crap, I forgot about Helsinki. another place to add to the list.

Sonja_S

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

have you guys seen the Flight of the Conchords episode, where this middle eastern guy won't sell Brett fruit because he doesn't serve "his kind." and then this whole race war ensues and the guy is leaving notes on his door that say "Kiwi go home!" And then finally they confront the guy and he explains that he has no tolerance for "convicts that were bred from monkeys" or something like that and Brett goes "no, that's australians, we're from new zealand" and the guy is like "oh my god, I didn't realize I'm so sorry" and then they band together and start a race war on the australians. it's hilarious.

I had never heard about this show, but it sounds funny. According to my computer, I will be able to see it in about 3 days though

pjfan31

Well i know on Austrias national Holiday. Bush sent Aussie PM Howard flowers